Press Releases, 9/21/2012 | Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Finland's potential term in the Security Council raised interest in consultations with NGOs

Press Release 217/2012
21 September 2012

Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja and Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala met representatives of non-governmental organisations at consultations with NGOs, where the topics included the 67th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and Finnish priorities. The annual consultations aim at discussing Finnish goals in the UNGA with NGOs.

In their speeches, both Ministers stressed the importance of the Security Council elections for Finland in the forthcoming session and during the final weeks of the campaign for Security Council membership, with the election day in October. The election for the non-permanent seats will be held on 18 October during the UN General Assembly.

Foreign Minister Tuomioja and Minister for International Development Hautala stressed the importance of the Security Council elections for Finland in the forthcoming session of the UN General Assembly. Photo: Eero Kuosmanen

According to Foreign Minister Tuomioja, Finland has run a good campaign. Finland has plenty of competence and much to offer to the Council and its work, he said. During the actual term, Finland will concentrate on the theme of Women, peace and security and promoting UN peace mediation capacity building. In its UN policy, Finland will also continue active promoting of human rights, democracy developments and the rule of law.

Minister Hautala highlighted many current themes in global development policy in her speech, including implementation of the decisions made in the RIO+20 sustainable development summit and agreeing on post-2015 international development objectives. According to Minister Hautala, one of the key goals is to make the objectives for states and other practitioners concrete enough. Moreover, Minister Hautala said that the Finnish Security Council campaign will have its grand final during the UNGA high-level ministerial week in New York.

NGOs welcomed the event and the themes with great interest. Finland's campaign for the Security Council and the potential term in the Council were the most popular discussion topics. Many speakers supported the Finnish spearhead themes, which were considered as well and carefully chosen. Many speakers also hoped for similar interaction with NGOs during the possible term in the Security Council.

Further information: Head of the Unit for UN and General Global Affairs Katri Viinikka, tel. +358 40 753 2730